NCDP CLIPS FOR July 11, 2014

Hagan Joins Colleagues in Proposing Legislative Fix to Protect Women’s Health in Aftermath of Supreme Court Decision: Today, U.S. Senator Kay Hagan announced she will join her colleagues in introducing a bill to restore women’s access to birth control after the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Hobby Lobby case. The Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act also protects coverage of other health services from employers who try to deny health benefits for their employees based on their own personal beliefs. Read more here.

Another Koch-Funded Ad Hides Tillis’ Dangerous, Special Interest Economic Agenda: Another Koch brothers front group, the American Energy Alliance, is out with a new ad to distort Kay’s record and hide Tillis’ dangerous, special interest economic agenda. While Kay is on the record opposing a carbon tax, and voted against one, the AEA is ignoring the fact that it is Thom Tillis’ Koch-backed tax plan that raised energy taxes on North Carolinians. Read more here.

Budowsky: The rise of Southern Dems: Throughout the South, a new generation of highly talented Bill Clinton-style political leaders has brought the Democratic Party to a strongly competitive position. In the great battle for North Carolina, Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) is fighting back and gaining strength against an attempt by radical right forces to complete a hostile takeover of an enlightened state with a diverse electorate. Read more here.

NORTH CAROLINA

Budget battle sharpens with veto threat: "I’m disappointed the governor would not support the most robust raise we could give our teachers," said Berger, R-Rockingham. "We continue to have that as our No. 1 priority, and what we intend to do is continue to push for the most robust teacher raise that we can put forward." Asked whether that’s true even in light of the threatened veto, Berger said with a smile, "We intend to push for the most robust teacher raise that we can put forward." Read more here.

Senate adopts Common Core repeal bill: Separate versions of the bill had already passed the House and Senate. The House version would have banned any use of Common Core, while the Senate bill would have allowed a new standards commission to pluck pieces of Common Core to use in a new set of state standards. That ability to use pieces of Common Core remained in the House-Senate compromise bill the Senate adopted Thursday. The House is expected to adopt the measure sometime next week, which would send it to Gov. Pat McCrory. Read more here.

NATIONAL

Rand Paul’s Big, Fat F on Civil Rights: Rand Paul says no one in Congress is doing more for minority rights than him. He’s standing by his comments, despite a Kentucky civil rights icon and a top leader of the Congressional Black Caucus pointing out Paul’s longstanding opposition to issues important to the black community this week. Read more here.

MUST SEE: Paul Ryan Holds ‘Poverty Hearing,’ Gets Obliterated by Black Mother of Three (Video): On Wednesday, Tiana Gaines-Turner, a childcare provider who supports three children on just $10.80 an hour, was allowed to speak before the House Budget Committee about her experiences. She explained that, while she and her husband are both working, they still struggle to adequately provide for their children. “We’re always trying to climb up,” she said. “There’s a constant climb […] It’s not something that we choose to do.” Read more here.

Todd Akin Takes Back Apology For ‘Legitimate Rape’ Comments Two Years Later: Former Senate candidate Todd Akin (R-MO) sunk his 2012 campaign with the line that went down in infamy: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Now, in his forthcoming book, Akin says he regrets apologizing for suggesting that women who are victims of “legitimate rape” cannot get pregnant. Read more here.

What’s behind Boehner’s nutty lawsuit threat: The tea party is driving the GOP train these days, which explains the frequent train wrecks. So, perhaps to appease the tea party bosses, Boehner has decided to sue the President. But appeasement never works. Highly influential conservative blogger and pundit Erick Erickson calls the Boehner lawsuit "taxpayer-funded political theater" and notes that some of Boehner’s complaints about Obama are political, not legal or constitutional. Read more here.

Scott Walker & WEDC Use Taxpayer Dollars To Support Outsourcing Wisconsin Jobs: WKOW in Madison is reporting that Scott Walker and his flagship jobs agency awarded millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to companies that later outsourced Wisconsin jobs to foreign countries. Both the Menomonee Falls-based Eaton Corporation and the Plexus Corporation in Neenah reportedly received millions in financial rewards from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to create jobs in Wisconsin, only to layoff workers whose jobs were outsourced to facilities in foreign countries. Read more here.

COMMUNITY

Decision on NC voting law injunction now up to federal judge: The question this week in U.S. District Court had to do with whether to grant a preliminary injunction against many of the provisions. Opponents argued that black voters in particular would be harmed if the provisions of the law remained in effect for the Nov. 4 general election, which features the hotly contested U.S. Senate race between Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan and Thom Tillis, the speaker of the House and one of the main architects of the new law. Read more here.

Black lawmakers call for services, not ‘sideshow’: North Carolina’s Legislative Black Caucus is calling on Republican leaders to come to an agreement on a budget – and to ensure that the spending plan doesn’t cut services for low-income families. At a news conference Thursday, caucus leader Rep. Garland Pierce, D-Scotland, called Wednesday’s contentious budget hearings a "sideshow." Read more here.